ALLIANZ NHL DIVISION ONE Galway 3-17 Cork 2-13:"IF A game is worth playing, it is worth winning," declared Galway manager John McIntyre after this entertaining dress-rehearsal for the league final in Thurles on Sunday week.
Although only 500 people turned up to watch it and neither team bore much resemblance to those that will take the field when the sides meet for what should be a cracking final, it mattered to the players who took the field.
The teams comprised of young squad men peppered with a few seniors and for those young hurlers, this was a chance to impress. It was a very open match, with some good scores taken on both sides and Cork led by a point with 15 minutes remaining before Galway, again displaying the resolve that has characterised their run to the final, put in a rousing last 10 minutes.
As McIntyre emphasised, what happened here won’t impact on the league final, but the decision to stage the final at 7pm still rankles.
“What does it matter, they don’t listen up there in Croke Park to managers or to supporters?” he said when asked about what he thought of the scheduling. “Listen, it’s like this – if the match was being played in midnight in Madagascar, Galway would be there,” he said. (Although given the international flight chaos, that demand could bring its own difficulties).
“But I think the GAA have to stand over their own product and that they ran for cover on this one. The game is at seven o’clock, but I think they would have got a bigger crowd if they had fixed it for the afternoon.”
Two goals from Galway in the final 10 minutes of the match was enough to end the Cork resistance, the first coming from Niall Healy, bringing his total to 2-9 before Damien Hayes, fresh on the field, seized on a loose pass and fired a terrific goal on the run.
The Portumna flyer celebrated it like it mattered too – the day and the match mattered to players for all kinds of reasons. For Cork’s Seán Óg Ó hAilpín, who coasted through the match at centre back and made one vital and sharp intervention on Niall Healy when he had to, it was a useful run-out.
The same applied to Adrian Cullinane, back in a competitive senior match for the first time in nine months and coming through the first half unscathed.
Niall Healy used the match to cut loose, scoring two smartly taken goals following perfectly-timed passes from Niall Hayes and looking confident in his striking from frees and from open play.
“I felt he had an excellent game and I was delighted for him,” McIntyre said afterwards.
“He is probably one of the more maligned players on this team and often unfairly and we have done a lot of work with Niall in terms of encouraging him to go at his man rather than twisting and turning away from the goal. And he certainly went at the Cork backs today.”
Cork lost Brian Murphy and Jerry O’Connor through illness, but set the pace in the first half, with Conor O’Sullivan cleaning up a lot of ball from left-corner back and William Egan and Cian McCarthy prominent in the exchanges around centrefield.
Michael Cussen had a good old battle against the smaller Eugene McEntee, but, phenomenally strong as the Sarsfields man is, his two points were down to touch here. Kieran Murphy and Luke O’Farrell scored the Cork goals, with O’Farrell’s score a demonstration in sharpness as he snapped up possession after Ben O’Connor’s attempted point rapped against the post and finished crisply.
At the other end, Anthony Nash made one outstanding save for Cork, denying Healy after Aonghus Callanan put him through on goal in the 19th minute.
“The players were disappointed to lose their unbeaten record, but there wasn’t much in it,” said Denis Walsh afterwards. “The Galway goal probably distorted the score a bit, it was more like a three-point game and even though we were missing a lot of players, we put a fairly balanced team out there.”
All six Cork forwards scored from play and Walsh ran his bench in the second half, dispatching Aisake Ó hAilpín to the edge of the Galway square in the hope of pillaging a late goal after Healy’s strike left Galway in command.
But it was the home team who finished with a flourish, with Hayes snapping a fine point before nailing the goal.
“The players have developed a winning mentality during league,” McIntyre said. “We might have pulled away early in the second half, but then Cork got a goal and went a point up and we had to go and win the game a second time.”
GALWAY: J Skehill; P Holland, E McEntee, O Canning; J Lee, C Dervan (0-1 free), A Cullinane; E Lynch, N Cahalane (0-1); A Callanan (0-1), K Hayes, A Smith; N Hayes (0-2), F Coone (0-2), N Healy (2-9, pen (point), two frees). Subs: D Barry for A Cullinane (ht), K Hynes for E Lynch (52 mins), D Hayes (1-1)for N Hayes (59 mins), T Óg Regan for J Lee (63 mins) J Gantley for K Hayes (66 mins).
CORK: A Nash; K Hartnett, D Cunningham, C O'Sullivan; M Breathnach, S Óg Ó hAilpín; R Ryan; G Calnan (0-1), W Egan (0-2); K Murphy (1-1), C McCarthy (0-1), B O'Connor (0-5, four frees); F O'Leary (0-1), M Cussen (0-2), L O'Farrell (1-0). Subs: S Murphy for K Hartnett (half-time), P O'Sullivan for L O'Farrell (51 mins), M O'Sullivan for F O'Leary (51`mins), A Ó hAilpín for C McCarthy (64 mins), L McLoughlin for D Cunningham (68 mins),
Referee: D Richardson(Limerick).
